Nara Restaurant & Sake Bar

Sushi’s presentation are good but taste is below average. Basically, they have very limited selection of sushi and there is too many different sauces added to the rolls. I would give it 3 start for the sushi but considering their prices that are way above average, i think they deserve 2 start. We usually pay $ 130 – 140 for a party of two at good sushi restaurants. We ended up paying $ 120 at Nara but we did not enjoyed our sushi’s that much.
I think there are definitely better sushi places in SF for the same amount of money.

One of my favorite sushi places in town!
I am picky when it comes to sushi. I am not one of those who gets a bento box when going to a Japanese place although I have nothing against bento boxes. I grew up in Aisa where Japanese food is everywhere, easily better than places in the U. S, and are a lot more affordable so it takes a lot for me to give five stars.
Let’s talk about customer service. Every single staff at Nara including the servers and chefs were friendly and welcoming. Also they were very knowledgable about their specials and the menu. I mean what more can I ask?
Excellent food. The quality of the fish Nara serves is not something you find in any Japanese restaurants. They are super fresh and delicious. I really enjoyed their uni, striped horse mackerel, premium Japanese snapper, golden eye snapper, and Hawaiian amberjack. Also these are not typical fish you find anywhere. I highly recommend Nara if you want to try something unique and different. Also I’m not a huge fan of rolls because rolls tend to overshadow the taste of the fish with sauce and other ingredients. However Nara’s rolls are amazing and super tasty and don’t overshadow the fish. Some of my favorites are Big boss, heartattack, and special K.
Daily specials. Every day from 5 – 7 they have a happy hour deal where draft beer and hot Sake are $ 1 off and they have one dollar oysters. If you are an oyster lover like myself, you def should check this place out.
Overall I have amazing time every time i visit Nara. I highly recommend this place to any sushi lovers like myself

5 stars for EVERYTHING: D !!! Excellent services and great food.
They got such a great/​fresh fish (esp Today’s specials from Japan. SO rare! MUST try) My favorites from the appetizers are Hamachi truffle and Maguro Tartare. They both have perfect amount of seasonings. I bet these are made out of magic sprinkles !! so amazing… I dont know how else to describe them :) !!
They also got some GOOD sake listing. You def need to check them out!
The most sake listing Ive seen in SF … If you have no idea what to order, read some descriptions on the menu. They got everything you need for a night ;)
+Dont forget they got happy hour everyday for oysters + draft beers (5−7pm)!!
I heard the oysters are from Tomales Bay, and they do not pick them until Nara orders them.
SO fresh and SO GOOD !!
I would loveeeeee to come back again :) !!!

Foods:3.8, service 3.5, rounded up to 4 stars.
Hamachi truffle is indeed excellent (but a bit too salted). Grilled yellowtail is overly done. Unagi rolls and other rolls ok. Chef’s choice is average. Ramen is not recommended – they have two: one spicy and one non spicy.
Service: over all not terrible. The server/​buzzer lady brought out our orders super quick. Another nice smiling girl is very friendly and helpful. If the waiter would be more attentive and introduce/​recommend their items a little more, that would be appreciated.
Environment: clean and spacious, good for small party. But they might have used bleach or clorox to clean the kitchen or tables, the chemical odor still lingers.
This sushi restaurant is a little similar to Pabu but with better sushis and more affordable. Would repeat!

Not fantastic but not bad.
Came here on a Sunday night with a large group and was easily able to get reservations. Ordered the nigri plate and handroll plate. The fish was good but nothing memorable… although the handroll was stuffed with too much fish. Too much fish?! I know. I think if the quality was excellent, I wouldn’t mind too much fish ;)
Next time I’m defnitely getting the ramen!

I loved the atmosphere and concept of the place, but the food just wasn’t great. I was so disappointed with the sashimi and nigiri dishes we got. Toro, Sake, Albacore, Amaebi and Tobiko.
Karaage was a joke, it was really dry and no flavor to the batter. Again, this place has so much potential! I really wouldn’t mind paying the price ($$$: Avg. $ 10-​$ 15 an order) if the food quality was better. Service and chefs were great, traditional «irrashaimase» upon entering and «arigato» when leaving.
Otherwise, for sushi quality… There’s tons of other places in the city that has better quality fish. If I lived in the area, I’d definitely go there more often but why when you have Iza Ramen around the corner! RAMEN… NOM!

Food: ¹⁄₅
Service: ³⁄₅
Atmosphere: ⁴⁄₅
I really don’t understand how a restaurant like this can have an overall 4.5 stars rating. We ordered some a la carte nigiri (sake, hon maguro, unagi, amaebi, hotate, uni, and ika) and two rolls, Haight Me and Sake Bomb.
Let me just tell you, I’ve NEVER had sushi this SALTY in my life. I don’t understand how the seasoning can be this off. I think it could be that they marinate their fish such as sake and ika in salt, but the over-​saltiness wasn’t just in the fish. The main problem was the seasoning in their rice. It almost tasted like someone accidentally poured a bucket of salt in the rice or something.
The second problem was that all the ingredients were NOT FRESH. Their uni was probably the worst uni I’ve put in my mouth, it had such weird flavor and bitter taste. It takes a lot for an uni fanatic like me to leave a piece of uni nigiri on the table. It was that bad! Not to mention all of their other fish were meh. They really didn’t taste fresh at all.
The third problem was that the flavors were quite off in the rolls. It could be the over-​seasoning of the rice, stale ingredients, their sauces, or the combination of everything, but I just couldn’t eat all of them even though I was at the restaurant with a huge craving of sushi and appetite.
I really wanted to like this place, the Korean staff are nice and the atmosphere is quite nice, too. I think the quality of food is the most important factor in a restaurant, though, and for that reason, this restaurant gets the lowest possible rating I could give and I will never be back here.

Watch your bill!
I came here based on the 4 ½ start and $ 1 HH oyster. I ordered staff which should be around $ 60 but I ended up with $ 100 bill. Here is why:
1) Handroll Processing Fee, beside the Handroll sampler, which is fixed price of $ 13, all other handroll will be charged $ 1/​handroll extra for «special order processing service». This fee is not listed anywhere on the manual, so, be aware of that.
2) Billing discrepancy, the manual states one price and your bill will state another. Watch out for that.
3) Communication issue, I ordered toro and bintoro handroll and I got o-​toro and something else per the bill. The o-​toro tasted just like toro, so it never occurred to me that what I got was not what I ordered. And I ended up with 3x of the cost.
4) I kept getting the plates that was not ordered by me. And I had to reminded the wait staff what I had order since they easily forgot.
I would give 4 starts for the quality of the ingredients; 3 stars for sushi; 2 stars for the bathroom (very messy); and 1 star for the service (The wait staff were friendly with beautiful smile. These are good people, but not good service provider).
I have to conclude that Nara and I are not meant to be for each other. Once is enough.

Solid place with a hipster touch! You have to go here just for the sushi with the pop rocks… a little shock doesn’t hurt anyone. It has a darker ambiance with a party vibe to it a lot of people are sake bombing and great staff. The staff are very friendly they scream something every time enters and leaves the restaurant. The Big Boss is everyone’s favorite it has: Yellowtail, tuna, salmon, salmon roe, avocado, cucumber and radish sprouts and a very clean and delicious taste to it. The hamachi truffle is to die for with yellowtail with jalapeño and to top it off with some truffle oil.
The Haight is a great neighborhood with a lot of SF culture and this is a great spot to check out in the area.

Overall 3 stars for the great service, fun vibe, and a few tasty dishes (it’s tapas style). Just make sure to get the right dishes. I would come back with a big group of friends and get all the plates and drinks that sound good. A sampling below.
Ranked in order of deliciousness:
1) Hamachi truffle: seared yellowtail with jalapeño cilantro and crunch in truffle oil ponzu. It comes in 5 delectable spoons with all the seasonings. You can taste the truffle without it being overpowering. Would get again.
2) (Special on wall) Ray-Ray’s Tako — sous vide Spanish octopus with red wine and apple reduction. Cooked just right for chewy texture and a nice sweet-​savory glaze.
3) Rice poppers: 4 deep fried sushi rice topped with spicy tuna and white tuna and ranch dressing. It’s like a bite-​sized Japanese rice ball. Yum.
4) Garlic butter edamame: you just can’t go wrong with garlic and butter. Get it.
4) Big boss: yellowtail, tuna, salmon, ikura, avocado, cucumber, radish sprouts. I like it that it’s just fish and rice, no fancy toppings needed. The ikura makes this roll.
Below this — would not get again:
5) Spicy tonkotsu ramen: it’s not entirely fair to compare this to ramen-​only shops, but this was a real miss. The spiciness overpowered the broth so you couldn’t taste the pork flavor. Noodles were stuck together, e.g. what happens when you cook pasta and leave it out to dry w/​no oil. The yolk in the egg seemed al dente but somewhere along the way it fell out of the egg white and was never found again… so can’t really comment on that one.
6) Spicy handroll tasting: you get one of each spicy tuna, hamachi and sake. Nothing special.
If I’m in the area again I’ll come back to try the other dishes.
Atmosphere: it’s a fun izakaya /​gastropub vibe and it’s open late (til 1130p), which is awesome and so rare in SF!
Service: super super fast — we were here at 1030p on a Saturday night and the place was about ¹⁄₃ full.

Came to Nara with my bf the other night. The vibe was great, the people are excellent in service.
We got the Shrek special, which was quite interesting, it was a ball of avocado thinly sliced and filled with shrimp, crab, and fish inside. We also got the big boss roll, and blaze of glory and chicken karage.
Let’s break down each dish and see what I’ve got to say!
Big boss– OH SO PERFECT. The amount of fish inside, the ingredients, the material and the wasabi mixed with soy sauce to top it off. Oh so fabulous. The size was perfect, good amount, quality was good. Perfect.
The shrek ball… You better LOVE avocado for this to be fabulous. Theres a bit TOO MUCH avocado for this, and I think towards the end we were pretty full, so I didn’t enjoy this so much.
We also got the blaze of glory. It’s a beautiful, cool, amazing sushi. The light the side of it with some holes in the foil to let the heat seap in. The fish is great, slight, very rarely cooked.
Great vibe, great service. Love this place. They charge for tea, which I don’t appreciate.

Sake Bomb: Very good, no jalapeño as noted, must remember to request without the tobiko. (little fish eggs)
Treasure Island: Good, except it was supposed to have jalapeño and either they forgot or didn’t have them because there was no spice whatsoever on these.
Garlic Butter Edamame: IMO, best part of the meal.
Miso: sub-​par. It was tepid and seemed to be separating, which means it was old and almost ruined the meal for me. If the miso isn’t good, the rest is questionable.
Overall I did go late in the evening right before close so everyone must have been eager to leave and they skimped on quality. The waitress was not very friendly and bordered on rude.

I wish I could give this place 5 stars but the service wasn’t so great so had to deduct a star.
The sushi is amazing. So creative, fresh, and beautifully presented. The vibe of this place is great as well.
The nigiri and sashimi tastings were excellent. The butterfish tasting was mind blowing. The handroll tasting was good but not the best. The heart attack and treasure island rolls were delicious.
Everything is so well presented and I was pleasantly surprised by how fresh the fish was.
My new favorite place. If only the servers start paying more attention and not leave us waiting next time.

What a menu with many of my favorite things. When we arrived early in the evening there was no wait that was a great start. Being it’s a holiday weekend most of the restaurants were very crowded and this is worth it for the taxi ride to the Haight.
The menu was put varied ranging in Specialities for hard core sushi enthusiast as well as those dabbling in Japanese cuisine. What I ordered bacon skewers with inoiki mushrooms– butterfish addiction appetizer– oysters– lychee saki. What I loved– the boyfriend hamachi truffle appetizer — the ginger crème brûlée. What I would get next time — the grilled miso butterfish. I plan to edit this review later–

Inattentive service (no one super rude, just not very helpful), grimey interior, dirty feeling unpleasant, mediocre food. Short review but not much more to say.
It was perfectly forgettable. Too bad my experience seems different than others. Wanted to like this place.

I actually came to this place from a recommendation of a friend. The area itself is not bad but you can tell it will be full of great places to eat and drink in a little more time. Inside the restaurant it’s nice, clean and looks great. The staff is very friendly and attentive when there. My party and I had two bottles of wine and many different rolls. We ordered some special rolls along with some basic rolls which were good as well. Nothing amazing about the food but it was good and tasted fresh. However, the water tasted a little funny. Not sure why that was but when asked for sparkling water or something else they didn’t have. Interesting. I would recommend this place and give it a try.

Most of the stars I give are to the service. Our waitress, Yumi, was a delight! She was very polite and attentive to our party of 8, and did us a small but very sweet favor ;) (she knows). I’m happy that there’s still servers like Yumi around.
The food was pretty good too. Not life-​changing but not bad. Tip if you’re going to order the Chirashi: it’s actually quite small for $ 25. It comes on a huge plate but there’s maybe 5 – 6 pieces of sashimi and the rest is rice and other garnishes. Nobody was really full after this, so I’d suggest it for a light dinner, not when you’re hungry.
The décor and atmosphere was also nice, very trendy and San Francisco. The place isn’t very big but it’ll accommodate large parties with a reservation.

Dinner review.
Hamachi truffle — ⁴⁄₅
Spicy Karaage — ²⁄₅
Rice poppers — ⁴⁄₅
Nigiri tasting — ³⁄₅
Fillmore — ³⁄₅
Blazing glory — ³⁄₅
Loco spiderman — ⁴⁄₅
Heart attack — ³⁄₅
Treasure Island — ⁴⁄₅
Overall, «I’m a fan.»

We ordered the chirashi and ramen. The freshness and cut of the sashimi was pretty good. However, the portions are extremely small. The sushi rice was also very dry and unseasoned.
What bothered me most was the service. My chirashi came first and my boyfriends ramen came way later. So the whole time we were just watching each other eat…

I would describe Nara as a modern Japanese/​sushi restaurant for social gatherings. NOTE: they don’t serve liquor — only beer, wine and sake. We were able to make a reservation for a group of 5 on a Friday night. The restaurant was fairly empty upon arrival, but started to fill up as the night went on. We started out with the oysters which came with soy sauce as opposed to horse radish. Very refreshing! I then had the «It’s like butter baby» grilled cod. Presentation was great and the cod was cooked perfectly. Given that it’s on the «heavier side,» I’d say that it’s more like a small plate rather than an appetizer. Also had the Big boss roll — yellowtail, tuna, salmon, salmon roe, avocado, cucumber and radish sprouts. Great execution with less, but thick pieces.
I was a little disappointed that the sushi options were limited to tastings, specialty rolls, and a la cart nigiri/​sashimi. IMO sushi restaurants should offer maki/​traditional rolls. They also serve their sushi in unique plates. The chirashi came in a rectangular plate with the rice and fish separated. It was basically a sashimi platter with rice on the side. Makes sense as to why it was priced the same as the sashimi and nigiri tastings. Service was good. They were kind enough to let us stick around and chat after dinner.

Belle déco, bonne musique, personnel agréable et surtout bon sushis à prix raisonnable. Y a pas mal de choix et c’est servi assez rapidement.